Medical marijuana legalization may be coming to Pennsylvania one way or another

It became obvious this week that Pennsylvania inevitably will emerge from the Dark Ages when it comes to a ban on the use of medical marijuana to ease the suffering of people with epilepsy or other ailments.

For some Pennsylvanians, perhaps, it will be a matter of getting dragged kicking and screaming into a more enlightened approach, but it's going to happen.

Leading the charge at the state level has been state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery and formerly a prominent and colorfully outspoken Lehigh Valley lawyer.

He has been at the forefront of efforts to relax draconian laws that criminalize the recreational use of pot, and I'm not optimistic about success there anytime soon, but he's also leading a more promising move to legalize medical marijuana.

The Leach legislation aimed at the latter has moved surprisingly well, and even Gov. Tom Corbett — once obdurate in his opposition to anything remotely suggesting acceptance of any form of marijuana — has started to bend, saying in May that he would approve a limited measure to provide treatment for sick children only.

Even if Pennsylvania remains stuck in its anti-cannabis quagmire, a Republican congressman from York County made waves this week about medical marijuana. U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, who landed in Congress only last year, introduced the federal "Charlotte's Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014." It would "amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude therapeutic hemp and cannabidiol from the definition of marijuana, and for other purposes."

Charlotte's Web is a marijuana extract named for Charlotte Figi, a little Colorado girl who was having 300 grand mal (the most severe type) epileptic seizures a week, leaving her unable to walk, talk or eat, and her heart had to be restarted repeatedly. After treatment with the extract, she was down to three seizures in eight months. That extract also helped victims of cancer, asthma, glaucoma and many other ailments.

Acceptance of the treatment has been slow in some states, however, because rabid anti-drug zealots do not want to admit they have been wrong in saying pot has no benefits, feeling that might weaken their holy crusades against recreational drugs.

"Unfortunately," Perry said in news release on Monday, "this plant and its derivatives and extracts are currently banned for medical use at the federal level and are unavailable to the citizens of Pennsylvania. This legislation would remedy that."

His office sent me a copy of his bill, which provides for the use of "therapeutic hemp" and defines it as an extract "with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol [THC] concentration of not more than 0.3 percent." The extract is called "cannabidiol oil," or CBD for short.

That is better than nothing, but a dose of CBD with less than 0.3 percent of THC — the part of pot that makes people high — is not very strong.

"Sen. Leach's bill doesn't have any limits," said John Tew, his legislative director. He said the state measure, Senate Bill 1182, "does not limit the strains that could be used. … The decision on what to take would be between the doctor and the patient."

Imagine that — letting doctors instead of politicians decide what's best for a patient.

SB 1182 says there must be a state license issued to grow, process or dispense medical cannabis, and licenses would have to be approved by a state board consisting of the state secretary of health, hospital representatives, doctors and nurses, and others. Initial annual licensing fees would range from $5,000 to $15,000.

The bill was introduced in January, was approved 11-0 by the Senate Law and Justice Committee in June, and then was sent to the Appropriations Committee on July 1. The Senate is out of session until Sept. 15, so no further action can happen until then.

For Pennsylvania families tormented by epilepsy, cancer treatments or many other horrors, however, there is reason for hope as never before.

Even if the Cotton Mather types in Harrisburg are able to circle their wagons in a last-ditch effort to keep us in the Dark Ages regarding SB 1182, the federal measure introduced by Perry can only weaken their resolve. Marijuana is marijuana, even at a CBO dose with under 0.3 percent of THC.

On Monday, accompanied by the families of victims who could be helped by CBO, Perry held a news conference to announce his measure. The families included Paige Figi, Charlotte's mother from Colorado, and several others from Pennsylvania.

"These children and individuals like them," he said, "deserve a chance to lead a healthy and productive life, and our government shouldn't stand in the way."

Perry is a conservative Republican, and most conservatives have previously opposed any liberalization of the stringent laws aimed at eradicating drugs from our culture, although the laws seem to have the opposite effect. (I am fond of pointing out that when cocaine was legal, and was the ingredient that originally gave Coca-Cola its name, it was cheaper per pound than soap. Now that it's illegal and the target of crazed police activity, demand has soared and it's more valuable per pound than gold.)

Leach is about as far from being conservative as you can get, but joining him as chief sponsor of his SB 1182 legislation is state Sen. Mike Folmer, a rock-ribbed Republican from Lebanon County.

That can only be encouraging for the victims of epilepsy, cancer, glaucoma and other ailments who may be helped by a once-despised weed.